SWAB (A Young Adult Dystopian Novel) (27 page)

“I’m so thirsty.”

“Where will we get water now?”

More scarb woke to the alarm. They swarmed around the dry drinking fountain to see for themselves. Derrick and Gray woke and stood at my left.

“Emerald shut the water off!” the scarb exclaimed. Someone tried to switch on the lights that lined that atrium walls. They too were without power. We were cut off from all resources.

Things were quickly getting out of control. The air vibrated with fear and anger. I turned to Iva and Derrick with wide eyes. “What should I do?”

Iva answered first. “Emerald has control of all the food, water, and electricity. She’s trying to starve us out.”

We’d been in the atrium less than twenty-four hours. We weren’t going to die of hunger or thirst just yet. There had to be a solution.

“There are over eight hundred guards outside the entrance,” Derrick reported. We still outnumbered them, but I wasn’t sure what
else would be waiting for us in the colony. I was trying to think it through, to find some sort of solution, when my thoughts were broken by Emerald’s voice. It was as if she were right there in the atrium with us, but I knew her voice was only in my mind.

“Scarb Who Is Called Cat,” her sharp voice rang, making me flinch, “I order you to surrender yourself with your band of traitors to me before noon. If you don’t, I will see that your brother is killed in a most displeasing manner. If that’s not enough to sway you, I’ll see to it that you and your pathetic little army starve to death in that hole you’ve penned yourselves in.”

Emerald’s voice went silent. The scarb turned to me.

I wished I could have just a single moment of privacy, the ability to shield my thoughts and fears from the others. I just wanted a minute to scream. Every fear and uncertainty I had could be sensed by them all. I took a deep breath and tried to pour some resilience into myself.

I had until noon tomorrow. She was going to kill Nate.

The scarb around us muttered and shifted uneasily. Emerald’s threat had not sat well with them. I could almost see the doubt in their eyes:
Is Cat actually suited to be queen
?
Will she really let us starve?

Iva put a hand on my shoulder. “I suggest we do not hesitate. Your scarb are growing restless by the minute, and tomorrow Emerald receives the shipment of soldiers from her sister, Fuchsia. Fuchsia’s scarb are known to be incredibly strong and ruthless. They will only make our task more difficult. We need to act without delay.”

I couldn’t agree more. I seemed to be losing more credibility every hour we were stuck in the atrium, and I wouldn’t see my brother murdered. Surrender was not an option. There was only one thing to do, though it terrified me to do it. We had to go straight for Emerald herself.

*****

Closing my eyes, I felt a measure of privacy I hadn’t felt since I’d become a swab. I was almost alone in the darkness of my eyelids. I remembered my days on the island, walking the aspen groves by myself with only the leaves and birds for company. Or drifting out onto the lake in a row boat and hearing the gentle lap of the waves and the wind whistling through the valley. Those days were over. I was never alone. Keeping my lids closed, I tapped into the connection. I needed this resource now. My life depended on it. So did my brother’s and all my scarb’s.

The force outside the atrium entrance had grown to nearly nine hundred. They were going to be a challenge to get through, but after that the colony was relatively empty. Working scarb went about the colony, tending to their normal duties. They wouldn’t pose a threat to us. I moved my consciousness further out and quickly found more pockets of Emerald’s soldiers. They spiraled higher until a large group of them clustered at the topmost space of the colony. That must be where Emerald’s chambers were because they were filled with scalvions and fliers. This wasn’t going to be easy. All of Emerald’s soldiers were well-fed and well-rested. My scarb, on the other hand—

Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes again. Iva and all my scarb were waiting for me. Many of the fliers had already taken to the air, and their wings beating a steady wind on my face. They were ready.

I addressed the fifteen hundred scarb in the atrium. “It’s time. We’ll break you into groups of hundred with a captain at the head of each. I wish I had more of a plan, but I’m afraid I don’t. We’re going to be a battering ram at Emerald’s door. We won’t stop until it crumbles.”

Iva, Bram, and Saki quickly helped organize the army into fifteen divisions, appointing strongly loyal captains for each. Iva volunteered
to lead the first group out of the atrium. I was to stay in the third with Bram. Derrick, Gray, Jorge and Travis took their place at my side.

On my order, the atrium doors opened, and like a raging sea, the first division poured out of the room. The guards awaiting us on the other side weren’t prepared for such a movement, and the first through fourth division of my army cut their way into the soldiers’ training facility. Our four hundred ran up against Emerald’s nine hundred. Her warriors soon recovered from our unexpected burst, and the battle got intense. There were too many scarb in such a confined space. Most of my scarb were still stuck in the atrium, pushing to get out, but the space was too full of Emerald’s soldiers. It seemed as though we would be quickly swallowed by them.

I was pinned tightly into the center of my scarb so I couldn’t see much. They bumped and jostled against me. The smell of blood and sweat filled my nostrils. I used my connection to get a better sense of what was happening and to try and sway Emerald’s force, but it didn’t work. We were horribly outnumbered in the training facility and they were closing in on us. If we didn’t get more of our scarb into the room, we would be cut off and crushed. My mind scanned the room over and over for some type of break. There it was, a weak spot on the right side of Emerald’s guard. “Attack to the right,” I told Iva. Her fliers unleashed upon them.

Finally, the guard started to give way. As more of the guard fell, more of my scarb came pouring into the room. The momentum changed. Soon my scarb were chasing Emerald’s soldiers to the corners of the room. Some surrendered, others fled down the stairs. The air was muggy, and my hair clung to my forehead. Fluids and blood made the floor slick, and bits of scarb flesh stuck to my boots as we made our way through the training rooms and down the stairs.

We had to cross the entire width of the colony through the dormitory area to get to the stairways opposite the atrium that led to Emerald’s chambers.

A few pockets of soldiers attacked us as we made our dash through the dormitories, but they were like saplings in a tornado. Iva led us past where we had once slept and down a stark, unadorned hallway that took us south, into a part of the colony I’d never seen. The walls and rooms we passed were plain and cold with none of the plush carpets or extravagant paintings on the walls. This section was pragmatic and militaristic. The thud of our boots rang against the walls.

A pair of double doors met us at the end of the long hall. Using my connection, I knew Emerald’s soldiers were on the other side. Iva stopped her division. Panting from the run, I moved toward her.

Her face gleamed with sweat, but her green eyes were bright. “I suggest we combine the troops into three groups. The largest should follow us directly up to Emerald and your brother. The other two can take the other passageways and meet us there, so we aren’t ambushed from either side.”

I quickly scanned the space above with my connection and found that she was right. It contained three main passageways leading to Emerald’s chambers. All were full of soldiers.

“Right,” I agreed, and the work was swiftly done.

“Emerald knows you’re coming,” Iva told me. “She sent out a command to the incoming troops of soldiers from Fuchsia’s colony to speed their journey. They will be here before nightfall. She’s barricaded herself up there, hoping to wait you out until the troops arrive. We won’t stand a chance against them.”

That wasn’t good news. “Then we have to hurry.”

Iva nodded. “Yes, but there’s something more you need to know. It isn’t just Fuchsia’s scarb that are coming. Fuchsia herself will be at the colony before nightfall.”

My mouth fell open.
Great
.
Nothing like a trapped queen bee and her pissed-off sister to deal with
.
My thoughts raced. “So even if we kill Emerald, we’ll still have to deal with Fuchsia?”

Iva gave a grim smile. “Yes, unless we prove fast enough.”

“Then let’s pray we’re fast.”

“Agreed.”

With that, Iva turned and called her division forward. As the scarb started moving through the doors, Iva said back to me, “Cat, you won’t like what you see up here. I wish I could take you through one of the side passageways, but the middle is the most direct route. I’m afraid we don’t have any other choice.”

I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Let’s just say Emerald has a penchant for experimentation,” was all she offered before running up to the front line.

I stayed with Iva’s division this time, eager to be at the head and to reach Emerald quickly. As ever, Derrick and the others jogged along at my side. Derrick constantly scanned to the right and left of me for any danger.

“What do you think that means?” I asked him as we passed through the double doors and came to the curving stairway. We would have to go up a flight, then down a hall on the first level to reach the next set of stairs, which were tucked away behind a large mural on the right. Then, up three more flights to reach the tight stairway that led to Emerald. It was a good thing Iva knew her way around this maze.

“I don’t think I want to know,” Derrick replied, trying to sound brave, but his face had gone a little pale. “Just think about Nate and don’t get distracted.”

Those were the words I needed to hear, but they did little to help. When we got to the first level, I barely saw the soldiers stationed there to stop us. My eyes were fixed on the glass containers that stretched from the floor to the ceiling and lined the entire corridor on both sides. Mutilated bodies of both humans and scarb floated in clear liquid inside them. The first was a young male human who had thousands of needles poked into his skin, making him look more like a pin-cushion than a human. His brown eyes were open wide and stared blankly at me. My stomach churned. I was going to vomit. But the bile never came because Derrick pushed me roughly to the left so that I bumped into Gray and nearly fell down.

A massive scarb I hadn’t even seen dove down, slamming into Derrick instead of me. The flier was on top of Derrick and smashed his fists into Derrick’s face. Gray launched himself into the air and onto the flier’s back. He grabbed the flier’s wings and gave them a sickly tear. The flier screamed and threw Gray off sending his body soaring into the chaos-filled corridor. I turned back to Derrick, who had his arms around the flier’s waist, holding him down. The flier’s left wing hung limply from his shoulder blade. I threw my upper body back and smashed the pointy barbs on my skull into the flier’s nose and cheeks. His blood dripped into my hair as he fell down, dead.

There wasn’t time to even inhale before another impossibly large flier came at me. This one had five long, silver tendrils protruding from her heels. They whipped and spun through the air like helicopter blades. I ducked to the left, but one caught my shoulder and ripped at the flesh. A scream slashed out of throat. The wound was deep but not terrible, and the pain sent adrenaline through my body. The muscles and tendons connecting my plated chitin hardened. My breath quickened.

I grabbed at my shoulder with the opposite hand. Drops of blood fell from the wound and hit the ground with a hiss. This made me take
my eye off my opponent. Slim streams of smoke rose from the ground where my blood landed. The drops were actually eroding the concrete. Amazingly, the acid didn’t burn me. But my distraction was a mistake.

One of the flier’s thick tendrils wrapped around my neck, yanking me off my feet into the air like a rag doll. My oxygen was instantly cut off. Panic filled me. I couldn’t breathe. My neck burned from the tight hold on it. I thrashed my legs and arms. I tried to grab at the flier to free myself, but another tendril caught my arm and held it back.

My vision started to get spotty. I knew I had to hold on, but there was no air. Odd guttural sounds came from my throat, but I couldn’t even scream. Frantic, I pulled at my arm to free it, but the flier held on too tight. She looked down at me, a look of pure satisfaction on her ugly face.

Just then, my arm was released.
The tendril holding it was gone. I looked down to see Derrick biting it. The flier flapped her large wings to pull me higher. Derrick held fast to the one tendril, but the other was still around my neck. My arm was free, but I knew that if I tried to grab the tendril around my neck, the flier would just pin my arm with another of her tendrils. The world started going black.

“Use your acid,” Derrick’s voice came into my mind.

Without thinking, I made a final effort. I flexed the knuckle barbs on my hand and brought them up to the wound on my shoulder. In a flash, I slashed the barbs down into the wound, cutting it deeper. Blood squirted out like a fountain splashing onto the tendril that held me. The blood instantly burned away the flesh.

The flier screamed and released me. I fell and hit the ground, hard. Everything went black for a moment.

When I regained consciousness, the first thing I saw was the floating head of an eighty-year-old woman. Her wispy white hair
floated through orange-tinted liquid, and her gray eyes were only half-closed. I wanted to scream, but my throat was too hoarse.

Pushing my hands underneath me, I got to my feet. Scarb swirled around me like a carousel, but I couldn’t focus on them. My head throbbed horribly, and I must’ve fallen on some water because the entire right side of my body was sticky and wet. When I touched the wetness with my left hand, the fingers came back wet and clear. Blood.